Users of electronic mail (“e-mail”) client application programs are commonly frustrated by the number of steps that must be taken by a user to view the contents of a document that has been attached to an e-mail message. In many cases, a user only wants to see a preview of the attachment. A preview is a read-only rendering of a document that mimics what a user would have seen if the document was opened with an application program associated with the document. However, in the typical case, the user is required to select the attachment and then launch the application program associated with the attachment to view its contents.
When this traditional process for viewing the contents of an e-mail attachment is performed, the user is required to change application contexts between the e-mail client application and the application utilized to view the attachment. When the user has finished viewing the attachment, the user must again switch application contexts by closing the application program and returning to the e-mail client application. Switching application contexts in this manner to view a preview of an e-mail attachment can be both time consuming and frustrating for a user.
Users of e-mail client application programs may also be frustrated by the number of steps necessary to create a reply to an e-mail message with changes to an attached document. In the typical case, a user must select the attached document for editing to open an application program for editing the document. Once the document has been opened for editing, the user may make their changes. When the changes are completed, the changed document must be saved in a location on the computer, oftentimes on the user interface desktop. Then, the user must create an e-mail message in reply to the original message and attach the changed document to the reply message. Then, the changed document can be transmitted with the e-mail message. This extensive process for replying to an e-mail message with an attachment with changes to the attachment can also be time consuming and frustrating for a computer user.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.